Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Bombay Beach

So I am currently watching a documentary called Bombay Beach, it's about this insane place in the US that epitomizes to me the entire US.
Once grand and plentiful, rife with life and happiness. A fleeting memory only recognizable by the faded beach umbrella full of holes and flapping in the wind, the ever persistent sun rotting away at the outer flesh.
I have never been moved quite so much by the life of strangers. I watch a lot of documentaries, usually about 3 a week on varying subjects. I do this to learn and to entertain myself, and because regular TV is for the simple minded people I tend to avoid. I did not know what to expect this evening, had I known I may have changed into something a little more comfortable and grabbed a box of tissues.
I am blown away. the filming is exceptional, I am no critic as I have no credentials; but wow......
The raw emotion in each and every second, I have never seen anything like it.
Part of my emotional response to this movie may be coming from the fact that I can relate to the subjects of this doc.
I'm an orphan, of people who suffered from substance abuse...I was a weird kid who then moved to a desolate trailer park in the state of Florida and proceeded to do all the bad things I could.
I could have ended up in a place like Bombay Beach, easily.
Yet somehow due to an unexpected turn of events here I am living in well fed- well kept suburban Ontario, taking advantage of free health care and all the social services a lady could ever want.
I want to hug the kids in this movie, I want to embrace their creativity and feed them organic food.
I want for them to stop being a victim of the economy of their country and their income and I want them to stop being coerced by their doctors to take Rydaline for being weird in that environment...of course those kids are weird, have you looked around you?
A desolate ghost town in the middle of the desert with abandoned homes and bomb shelters.
unexploded ammo in their sandboxes.
I know worse things are happening in the world, but when I see it happening so close to home it's shameful. I feel shame for not making this stop. For having it so easy, for not helping these people to live a happy life.
Why would anyone move to the desert?
It's no place to raise a family.